Decentralized Domain Name System (DNS) Marketplace powered by Cardano and Handshake blockchains

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Blink Labs

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Entity (Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Co-proposers and additional applicants

Blink Labs and Gimbalabs have many members who may participate in this work.

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

7

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

Create an open source decentralized domain name system (DNS) marketplace powered by Cardano smart contracts and Handshake top-level domains.

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

No dependencies.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

The project will be open sourced under the MIT license.

[METADATA] Horizons

Marketplace

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

In the Internet Domain Name System (DNS), a single entity, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), determines the allowed top-level domains and controls who is allowed to sell second-level domains. A top-level domain is the “.com” in a website or service on the Internet, while a second-level domain is the “example” in “example.com”, or the second dot-separated item, reading right to left. With this power to grant new names, comes the power to take them away. A recent political change in the ownership of the Chagos Archipelago has put the future of the “.io” top-level domain in question.

https://domainincite.com/30395-future-of-io-domains-uncertain-as-uk-hands-over-chagos-islands

 

The Handshake (https://handshake.org) blockchain is a purpose-built blockchain for decentralizing the top-level domains into a self-sovereign solution based on the proof of work algorithm which powers Bitcoin. It removes a central authority from the governance of names and replaces it with a decentralized, blockchain based solution.

Blink Labs and Gimbalabs will build a fully open source and self-service, cross-chain domain name system with marketplace infrastructure using Cardano smart contracts. Handshake top-level domain owners will be able to use their domains to create marketplaces for second level domains on Cardano. These domains will be stored as native assets on the Cardano blockchain in accordance with the design of the cardano-dns specification. Second-level domain owners will be able to use their domain assets to maintain their DNS domains via smart contracts, without a third party. These domain assets will be tracked and indexed by a custom DNS server (https://github.com/blinklabs-io/cdnsd), which is already built and released under an open source license. Blink Labs and Gimbalabs will build a DNS network using this server to service DNS requests for users.

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

Creation of this marketplace will allow greater collaboration between the Handshake and Cardano blockchain communities, exposing Handshake-based domains to the Cardano community while providing Cardano a decentralized naming system for building decentralized applications.

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

Blink Labs has decades of experience delivering open source software with a proven track record of delivery. Their work is open source and public for all to view. Their team is highly cohesive and have worked together for years, allowing them to provide accurate time and cost estimates to their work.

Gimbalabs' capability to deliver this project with high levels of trust and accountability is grounded in their extensive experience in blockchain technology, software development, and educational technology. They have a proven track record of delivering complex projects on time and within budget, ensuring transparency and stakeholder engagement throughout the project lifecycle.

Blink Labs will create GitHub issues for the individual items of work and will track those items using a project Kanban board on GitHub.

[PROJECT MILESTONES] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

Milestone 1 will consist of research into utilizing Handshake signatures in Cardano smart contracts using Plutus v3 and creating a validation method for Handshake domain ownership.

• Research methods for handling cross-chain signatures
• Build open source contracts and documentation implementing signature validation
• Demonstrate transaction building on Cardano preprod signed by Handshake signature

Milestone 2 will create a controller contract which will be used for registration of domains into the DNS network and provide an example marketplace site.

• Build a method to validate ownership of a Handshake domain on Cardano
• Build open source contracts for a Handshake domain owner to securely register a domain on Cardano

Milestone 3 will create domain contracts for minting and updating the domain assets in adherence with cardano-dns (https://github.com/blinklabs-io/cardano-dns).

• Build a minting contract which allows the registered owner on Handshake to mint second level domains on Cardano
• Build a reference contract which allows holders of second level domains to configure DNS settings for that domain

Milestone 4 will integrate the contracts with a command line interface (CLI) to interact with the contracts.

• CLI functionality to register a domain with the controller contract
• CLI functionality to mint a second level domain on a registered top-level domain
• CLI functionality to configure DNS settings on a second-level domain

Our 5th and final milestone will wrap up the project, including the Project closeout report and video. The project closeout report will include a comprehensive summary of project objectives and evidence of goals achieved. The project closeout video will provide a visual overview of the projects journey, start to finish, highlight key achievements, and showcase the net product: Decentralized Domain Name System marketplace infrastructure powered by Cardano and Handshake blockchains

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

The project development will be completed by the Blink Labs and Gimbalabs teams. Our teams includes Principal / Staff Engineers, with more than 75 years combined experience. This project will be primarily assigned to Chris Gianelloni (https://github.com/wolf31o2) of Blink Labs and James Dunseith (https://github.com/workshop-maybe) of Gimbalabs for development completion, with additional team developers providing code review, documentation, and support.

Additional Blink Labs staff may be used for administrative functions, such as project management and community reporting.

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Funding will primarily pay for engineering time. There is also a small piece set aside for paying administrative staff for project management.

The project budget is 32300 ADA per month to pay for Engineering (30000), Project Management (1500), and infrastructure (800) for the first four milestones. The final milestone will be an additional 6000 ADA for the project manager. Each of the first two milestones corresponds to 2 months, with the next three milestones corresponding to 1 month. Engineering responsibilities will be split between Gimbalabs and Blink Labs. Time for engineering and project management is planned at approximately 80 hours and 10 hours, respectively, each month. The final milestone includes closeout reporting and video production and will take approximately 40 hours of project management time.

Included in this proposal is infrastructure costs for running the DNS network for 6 months.

No additional funding is necessary for third party products or services.

[VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

Costs are estimated on a 333.33 ADA per hour rate for a senior golang blockchain software engineer and 227.27 ADA for a golang engineer working remotely within the United States (~ $192k USD and $156k USD annually, respectively), a 181.81 ADA per hour rate for a smart contract developer working remotely within the United States (~ $125k USD annually), and 150 ADA per hour rate for a project manager working remotely (~ $86k USD annually)

Infrastructure costs are based on running 4 m7g.medium machines continuously in AWS, including additional costs for IP addresses, network traffic, and storage